The adventures of a Melbourne Knitter

Month: April 2014

I was able to gather up some Richmond Knitters at the last minute for a bit of a Crafternoon at my place yesterday.

The crafternoon had all the ingredients for a successful afternoon:

There was cake. I made this, despite it’s disastrous appearance, by all accounts it was delicious. It’s the first cake I’ve made in a really long time. Damian helped me separate the eggs, I had a bit of trouble with that…

There were babies:

There was a yarn shelf, some excellent knitters, a spinner, a destash (mine, yippee!) and some funny conversation.

I’m still here. It’s been a hell-of-a-month. For those that don’t know me in real life or haven’t heard, we had to let our cat, Purl go a few weeks ago. It’s the first time I can write those words without cracking up into tears. She meant a lot to me.

So, what have I been doing?

Not a lot of anything. Making plans, making changes, cherishing my family and friends.

A girly weekend to Hepburn Springs came at a most opportune time. And as promised over and over again, I took along my 20-year-old hexagon patchwork and apart from some Vanilla socks for car knitting, I took nothing else.

For the uninitiated I should let you know the scope of my hexagon patchwork quilt project. It began as my big idea for a project between my school break from high school to uni. It is a very large quilt, spanning the size of a queen bed, to the floor. There are 40 patches by 46 rows of patches. That’s 1840 patches. Each of the patches have been sewn into rows except for the last 6 rows. I’m up to sewing my 12th row. Here’s where you come in: I need you to keep tabs on me.

I recalled that sewing a row, not taking that long. By my memory estimation, I would say 2-3 hours tops. This estimation was seriously revised by the end of the weekend. Having arrived in Hepburn I began sewing where I left off (however long ago) at half-way between row 7 and 8. I optimistically brought along the whole project, all the rows including the last 6 that hadn’t been sewn together. This was quickly revised to a goal of having 15 rows sewn over the course of the weekend. Leaving on Sunday afternoon I was nearing toward the end of row 10. I think. I have since sewn row 11 to 10. And now I’m starting a new separate section, sewing rows 12 to 13. The plan is to sew about 4 rows together, then attach it to the larger piece as I go. Sewing directly to the larger piece for the next 42 seams, is not my idea of fun.

So there you have it. A row a week, that’s do-able. Perhaps this quilt or quilt top (let’s not get ahead of ourselves) will be ready for it’s 21st party this summer.